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Illusions of Utopia: When Prison Architects (Reluctantly) Play Tetris

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Carceral Spatiality

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Prisons and Penology ((PSIPP))

Abstract

Although prisons are increasingly built away from cities, prison architects are imagining prisons as cities. Such an urban metaphor is perhaps unsurprising; both the prison and the city are often assumed to be relatively bounded places, prisons arguably resembling self-sufficient cities with facilities such as accommodation, classrooms, workshops, laundries, health clinics and gardens contained within their walls. The vocabulary of the city is also pervasive when justifying prison architecture. In this chapter we consider why prison architects use the metaphor of the city to describe the prisons they design, using terminology such as ‘walled bungalows’, ‘penitentiary houses’, ‘vertical prisons’ and ‘cell apartments’, and we examine the significance of this rather dystopian urban imaginary in allowing architects to retain some agency within a design process which minimises their creative and political input.

It is a dream project for an architect because this is a global project. To think a prison is thinking about everything. It is to think of life. A prison is a dormitory, it’s a restaurant, it’s a sports club, it’s a hospital, it’s a factory, it’s a school, it’s a public square.(Eric, prison architect, Belgium)

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre lillois d’études sociologiques et économiques, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium

    David Scheer

  2. Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

    Colin Lorne

Authors
  1. David Scheer
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  2. Colin Lorne
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to David Scheer .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Geography, Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham , Birmingham, United Kingdom

    Dominique Moran

  2. Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom

    Anna K. Schliehe

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Scheer, D., Lorne, C. (2017). Illusions of Utopia: When Prison Architects (Reluctantly) Play Tetris. In: Moran, D., Schliehe, A. (eds) Carceral Spatiality. Palgrave Studies in Prisons and Penology. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56057-5_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56057-5_5

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-56056-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-56057-5

  • eBook Packages: Law and CriminologyLaw and Criminology (R0)

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